In a Lonely Place
Cinema 21, $8 admission
Feb 20, 7pm

Nicolas Ray
USA 1950
94 min.
It’s the question that terrifies every serious drinker: What did I do last night? A practiced boozehound laughs this off, but it’s no joking matter for Humphrey Bogart’s Hollywood screenwriter, drowning in bitterness even more than gin (though he does joke about it, much to the dismay of the cops).

Bogie is suspect #1 in the murder of a hat-check girl he invites back to his apartment to summarize the trashy novel he’s contracted to adapt. A smothering paranoia hangs over Nicholas Ray’s 1950 noir—could it have something to do with the director finding his leading lady and wife, Gloria Grahame, bedding his 13-year-old son midway through the shoot?

Whatever the reason, the picture’s screw-tightening is excruciating; Bogart’s injured pride rarely carried such a sorrowful menace. The movie was billed as having a “surprise finish,” and for once that pitch holds true—after tipping its hand for 90 minutes, the film ends with a reversal of devastating quiet. As befits the title, the leads are rewarded by being left alone with their own natures.